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Saturday, 6 February 2016

Assessing the the 4 February anti-TPPA protest

I really can't say it better than Chris Trotter right now

Making
It Stop: Taking stock of 4 February 2016, with some thoughts about
the way forward

Chris
Trotter

SOME
TRIBUTES FIRST, then an apology

SOME
TRIBUTES FIRST, then an apology. To Jane Kelsey and Barry Coates I
can only say thank you. Demonstrations like the one I marched in
yesterday don’t just happen. They are the product of hours and days
and years of hard work, during which people fight not only against
loneliness and fatigue, but against the insidious thought that their
unceasing efforts might all be in vain. Observing the glowing faces
of Jane and Barry, as they rode down Queen Street yesterday
afternoon, it was their selfless commitment to battling on, heedless
of setbacks and against all odds, that brought tears to my eyes. Once
again, thank you.

Tribute
is also due to Real Choice. By their extraordinary actions throughout
the morning and afternoon of 4 February 2016 they proved just how
sterile theoretical debates about tactics and strategy can be.
Somehow, in growing older, I had forgotten the words of the young
student activist, Mario Savio, spoken 50 years ago on the steps of
Sproull Hall at the University of California’s Berkeley campus. In
my teens and twenties I had sworn by them, and, to my older self,
they certainly bear repeating:

“There’s
a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious—makes
you so sick at heart—that you can’t take part. You can’t even
passively take part. And you’ve got to put your bodies upon the
gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus,
and you’ve got to make it stop. And you’ve got to indicate to the
people who run it, to the people who own it that unless you’re
free, the machine will be prevented from working at all.”

Yesterday,
Real Choice put their bodies on the asphalt of Auckland’s
inner-city carriageways, and for several hours they made things stop.
In doing so they sent a much-needed reminder to the people who run,
to the people who own, this country that it can, if the provocation
is great enough, be prevented from working. No one has indicated that
to them for a very long time.

So,
to Real Choice I say: Respect. No one was seriously hurt and no one
was arrested. In the words of the little man in the grey suit who was
right there in the thick of things, that was: “Bloody marvellous!”

I
also say: Sorry. For my throw-away, and clearly unfounded, suggestion
that Real Choice might be a “false flag” operation, I apologise –
and my statement is withdrawn unreservedly. No false-flag operation
could possibly have out-thought, out-run and out-manoeuvred the
Police like Real Choice did yesterday. The Springbok Tour protesters
of 1981 could not have done it better.

BUT,
NOW WHAT? In which direction should the energy generated by
yesterday’s protest actions be turned?

Happily,
there is no shortage of targets.

Parliament
resumes sitting on Tuesday, 9 February. The slow wending of the TPPA
document through numerous select committee hearings, followed by the
Government’s enabling bill’s passage through the four stages of
parliamentary debate; both will provide excellent opportunities for
carefully targeted protest action. Likewise, the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs and Trades’ (MFAT’s) travelling road-show of public
presentations intended to “sell” the Government’s pro-TPPA
position to the electorate. All should be seen as educative political
events, reinforcing the anti-TPPA’s core messages of diminished
national sovereignty and a deepening democratic deficit.

The
extent to which these core messages have already entered the public’s
consciousness has unpleasantly surprised the TPPA’s supporters.
They were taken aback at the size and vehemence of the Auckland
protests and will already be working on ways to unpick the picture
Jane Kelsey and her comrades have embroidered so vividly on the
public mind. The Government’s and big businesses’
counter-offensive will have to be met, held, and rolled back.

This
will be made considerably easier by the simultaneous fightback
against the TPPA occurring all around the Pacific rim – but
especially in the United States. Strategically, the struggle is
between the progressive/patriotic forces operating within the twelve
signatory states, and the defenders of the transnational
corporations. Obviously, this puts the “Pro” forces at a serious
disadvantage. Far from being able to pass themselves off as promoters
of the public good, they will emerge from the contest as the big
corporations’ fifth columnists, committed to defeating the patriots
fighting to prevent the agreement’s ratification.

John
Key and his Government thus risk entering election year as a
collection of figurative “Quislings”, guilty of conspiring
against the national interest on behalf of entities without
countries, morals or scruples. If this perception can be driven deep
into the electorate’s mind, then National’s chances of
re-election will be nil. More importantly, the victorious
progressive/patriotic parties will be swept into office with a broad
mandate to take on a corporate plutocracy that has ruled without
challenge for far too long.

For
the first time in over 30 years, there will be a mass political
movement dedicated to putting itself “upon the wheels, upon the
levers, upon all the apparatus” of the neoliberal machine – and
making it stop.